f**k have I got to learn Viking

Hey, I am getting involved in a new project. The idea is a similar format to www.Solidaritypark.com project. That project was five years in the making and is now hopefully about to enter a critical and intense phase. I am going to be insanely busy. A great time maybe I think to build the bridge to my next project.

So I’m off to Sweden, first to Hammerkullen, Göteborg. This bridge’s foundations were already in existence. I was invited in August 2017 to be an artist of the #HAU17 project and Video . I am very honoured to be invited back. My focus in Gothenberg will be similar to the last time with issues such as refugees, social rights, and internationalism but this time I hope much  bigger, more participation and definitely more direct with #participationMonument

For me the process is as important as the finished item. Making art can focus our consciousness and give us confidence in general. If we do that collectively it can create solidarity and a common symbol for us to gather around. Social and political movements need culture and creativity. Well, more than need they must have them. Without it’s like being at sea without a compass. Solidarity Park for example in a modest way and part of a wider process is a symbol for the need to recovery the historic memory of the spainish civil war! The International Brigades and all that means, people participating creatively can tell many stories at once and allow us to discover the whole.

So today with this blog post I start a new process. I hope through this website and Facebook page to keep anyone interested and up dated but also keep myself in check.  I have a lot of basic ideas which I am hoping others will develop and change. 

This first trip is amount communication. So maybe I have to learn some Viking, well the Swedish version. Luckily most Swedes speak English … but really with the subject matter I want to deal with would be nice to at least try and not always speak my imperialist tongue. Then again Hammerkullen has a population of 80% immigrants, many originally South American. My journey in learning Spanish and Catalan has been long and hard and still proves to be so … oh f**k.

I have always been threatened with accusations of being dyslexic. People close tell me all the time and I often reject it but at times I feel it in an extreme way. For me this complication has to become an inspiration otherwise I’m finished. When we are told we can’t, we have two choices. Either we believe it or we don’t. I choose to be thick and ignore the obvious obstacles. It works for me (after all we are a long time dead) to say things aren’t possible. 

So me learning Swedish quickly or at all is not likely. But if the front door is shut try the the back door, a window and if necessary sometimes a battering ram to open another way. Thankfully communication is not all about language. 

So Göteborg here I come.